Fort Worth Twin Drive-In
1931 Bomar Avenue,
Fort Worth,
TX
76103
1931 Bomar Avenue,
Fort Worth,
TX
76103
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Showing 1 - 25 of 33 comments
The Southwest section of the July 21, 1956 issue of Boxoffice ran a long story about “Elmer Gordon, manager of C. D. Leon’s Fort Worth Twin,” … “the lone dual screen drive-in at Fort Worth”. Here’s my favorite glimpse into what the place was like:
“The kiddy playground is so situated on the north side of the patio that the lights can continue burning on it throughout the performance of the screen attractions without disturbing the patron. And, a cage of parakeets is on exhibition outside the snack bar on screen No. 2 side.”
Correction, the opening date i posted above, was as a twin drive-in, in august 1967.
Opened with on screen 1 with “Not with my wife you don’t” and “Up the down staircase” and screen 2 with “Duel at Diablo” and “You only live twice”.
This opened on July 15th, 1953. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
Approx. address for this drive-in was 1931 Bomar Avenue. The theatre was the field east of this address.
Chuck1231.. I so appreciate the compliment. Thank You!
Now, If I could figure out how to make my link do like you did in your comment. ie. “photos” .. How is this done? Thanx! Randy
RAC Photography
Here’s a few (of the several) photos I’ve taken of the Fort Worth Twin.. Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/racphotography/466808670/ .. Plz, No copying & pasting any of my photos to any other site, Thanx! RAC Photography
Sad.. The Both Screens were removed a couple of years ago. Nothing remains of the Fort Worth Twin today except the land it sat on.. I’m with LarryFM too. Good Luck raymj! The Meadowbrook is the only one left standing that I know of. Just to note, someone looked into re-opening the Meadowbrook a few yrs back. After they found out they would have to connect the sewer of the Drive In to the City’s hook up, they backed away from it. The cost was going to be pretty high from my understanding because of how far they’d have to run the sewer line to connect to the cities connection. As the Drive In was on a Septic Tank system & no longer can be done this way. And the City would not go in half to help get this done. This is what I was told*. But you never know until you look into it, as today, something could be done! Randy A Carlisle RAC Photography
Raymj, all of the drive-in theatres in Fort Worth have been demolished and/or paved and built over with new structures (Wal-Mart, strip mall, etc.), except for the Meadowbrook. It’s screen tower and box office (including it’s sign) are still in existence. I believe the property is owned by Waste Management Services, as the old lot now holds garbage dumpsters. It sounds like an intriguing idea you have. Good luck!
I am very interested in locating, purchasing and reviving a vintage drive-in movie theater in the Dallas-Ft. Worth or surrounding area. Would also be interested in a vintage traditional movie theater in the same area.
I would love to locate, purchase and revive a vintage drive-in movie theater in Texas. Does anyone have any leads? Thanks.
Thanks LarryFM! Something else I forgot to mention is there was outdoor seating at the end of the consession. It was just straight
benches with backrests and one speaker. I’m thinking one end of the consessions the seats were facing one screen and opposite on the other end. For some reason I can only remember sitting on the south
end facing east but if the seats were back to back it seams the sound would’ve conflicted. I grew up very close so that’s the drive in my family went to the most but we occasionally ventured out to other ones so there’s probably no drive in in Fort Worth built after
1954 that I haven’t been to except The Meadowbrook which was right across I30 from the Twin but for some reason my Parents always said The Meadowbrook was “seedy”
OUTSTANDING, Fwkid! In the July 25, 1953 issue of BOXOFFICE magazine, there’s a two-thirds page article describing the opening of the Fort Worth Twin, complete with three photographs, including the screen tower. The article states that it was opened by the C.D. Leon Theatres circuit, and the original architect for the theater was Harvey A. Jordan of Arlington, who also designed the Cowtown Drive-In.
Also, on the Historic Aerials website, the original screen towers can be seen as late as 1963, but by 1970, were converted over to the Stran-Steel structures. And I believe that by the time of the conversion in the ‘60s, the theatre was owned by Stanley Warner Theatres (which also owned the Corral and Westside Drive-Ins), and was later sold to Texas Southwest Theatres.
EXCELLENT post, Fwkid, and thank you VERY MUCH for your info!
I don’t know the demensions but I know the original screens were smaller. The west screen was the largest and had space in the bottom
that had doors. I don’t know what was in there though. The east screen was smaller and was kind of plain. They were a pinkish color
and the west screen had Fort Worth Twin written in neon on the back.
The screens were partially destroyed by high winds or a tornado in the 60s. They actually erected large poles in front of the old screens and hung large canvases so they could continue to show movies while they built the new giant “curved” screens.
Would anyone know the screen tower dimensions of either the original or latter (“Stran-Steel”) structure? Thank you.
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y4ox3hu
O.K.
Well, the drive-in was situated along I-30. It’s main entrance was off Riverside Drive, but it’s official address, as listed in the Fort Worth Yellow Pages, was 2100 Bomar Avenue.
This was at I-30 and what?
Too bad AOL Hometown was shut down, as it had a pic of the Fort Worth Twin’s original west screen, not the screen we’re more familiar with. Hopefully, someone has it. If so, post the link here. Thanks!
Old photo of the Fort Worth Twin at this site.
http://hometown.aol.com/dryvinlady/page1.html
Too bad……..It was just a matter of time.
Don…………
That company just tore down the screens. One on 11/2 and the other on 11/5.
Went By the Fort Worth Twin today (5-5-07) and they are setting up to start drilling for Natural Gas. I ask one of the workers if he had heard if they were going to remove the screens and he said he had not heard of anything like that. (As of Today)….
Randy A. Carlisle
“Preserving AMERICAs History Thru Photography”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99859572@N00/
My Website Above! ENJOY!!
Randy
Thanks to dannyh for the correction that this drive in is actually the “FORT WORTH TWIN” rather than the TWIN TOWERS.
The two screens face each other. Here is my image of the west screen as of 1/21/07.
www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/365469532